The field of this disclosure relates generally to load identification and, more particularly, to a load identification system and a method of assembling the same.
Many known wind turbines include a tower and a rotor mounted on the tower via a nacelle. The rotor has a number of blades extending therefrom to facilitate converting wind energy into rotational energy. The rotor drives a generator through a gearbox via a rotor shaft, and the gear box steps up the inherently low rotational speed of the rotor shaft such that the generator can convert the mechanical energy to electrical energy.
Because many known wind turbines provide electrical power to utility grids, at least some wind turbines have larger components (e.g., rotors in excess of thirty-meters in diameter) that facilitate supplying greater quantities of electrical power. However, the larger components are often subjected to increased loads (e.g., asymmetric loads) that result from wind shears, yaw misalignment, and/or turbulence, and the increased loads have been known to contribute to significant fatigue cycles on the rotor blades and/or other components of the wind turbine. As such, it would be useful to provide a system that facilitates identifying loads on components of wind turbines, such as the rotor blades and/or the rotor, so that the loads can be reduced.